Poor publicity plagues CM Health Centres

Tirupati: Lack of publicity for Chief Minister Health Centres (Mukhyamantri Aarogya Kendralu) which were started formally amid much fanfare on April 5 is resulting in poor turnout of patients. A total of 222 health centres in the State were inaugurated by the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on April 5 which was intended to provide telemedicine services from the Apollo Hospitals. These were established mainly in the urban slum areas.

In all 14 CM’s health centres were established in Chittoor district out of the 77 in Nellore and Rayalaseema districts. Among them 8 centres are in Tirupati at Bairagipatteda, Municipal dispensary at Krishnapuram Thana, Nehru Nagar, Postal Colony, Scavengers Colony, Erramitta, Sivajyothi Nagar and Auto Nagar. Chittoor has three, Sri Kalahasti two and Madanapalle has one centre.

These health centres were the metamorphosed e-urban health centres. Initially three centres were inaugurated as pilot projects on October 1, 2016 and the Bairagipatteda health centre in Tirupati was one among them. Subsequently the remaining centres were also launched. The clinical tests, consultation, medicines and expert advice from the Apollo doctors in Hyderabad over video facility were all provided at free of cost.

The doctor available at the health centre acts as the facilitator between the patients and the Apollo doctors. Hitherto, the poor people living in those areas have to go all the way to the Government hospital which will be far away from their home. This can be avoided now.

Treatment will be given for all diseases and the necessary tests will be administered there itself. If needed, further tests may be referred to nearby government hospital. Even the vaccination for the pregnant women and children will be administered there only.

Once a patient is registered with the Health Centre the ‘Aasha’ workers will look after the other follow-up procedure. They will go the patients’ homes and bring them to the health centre for vaccination. The concerned expert from Apollo Hospitals will talk to the patient if needed, suggest treatment and prescribe medicines.

All these services and efforts were going unnoticed as no one is concentrated on publicity aspect. Nowhere a hoarding on this scheme can be seen. The authorities have not used any other modes of publicity also. The role of NGOs also was not there. As a result, the scheme which provides good health for the poor is looking for more number of patients.

On an average only 30-40 patients were coming daily to some centres and even less number to some other centres. Almost the same number was coming previously also when e-health centres were there. With increased services and facilities the number of patients was not increasing much.

Speaking to The Hans the Zonal Manager of CM’s Health Centres, B Mahesh Babu said, “If there is publicity, easily each health centre may serve more than 100 patients daily. Now the district medical and health department and the ‘Aasa’ workers are doing this”. The DM&HO Dr Vijaya Gowri also said that “publicity is important and we are taking care of it now”.

By V PRADEEP KUMAR